Toita Hall (former Toita Village Hall)

Toita Hall: A Village Office on the Road to Kanaiwa

Toita Hall (former Toita Village Hall; 戸板ホール（旧戸板村役場庁舎）) is a two-storey timber village office built in 1940 in Futakuchi-machi, Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture, and was entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2008.

The building was put up as the office of Toita Village in Ishikawa District. The village was later absorbed into Kanazawa, but the building survived the merger and is now known simply as Toita Hall.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs lists it as a two-storey timber structure with a tiled roof and a building area of 212 square metres. It was renovated in 1961 and again in 2007. Toita Hall was registered on 18 April 2008 under registration number 17-0189, with the official notice following on 7 May.

Why It Was Registered

Of the criteria used for registration, Toita Hall qualifies as a building that contributes to the historic landscape of the country.

It faces north onto the road that ran from the old castle town of Kanazawa to its outport at Kanaiwa. For centuries that route carried people and goods between the castle town and the sea. An early Showa village office still fronting the road gives the streetscape a sense of the period that newer buildings cannot.

Village offices usually lost their purpose, and often their buildings, when municipalities merged. Toita Hall stayed in use under new functions, and so it still shows passers-by what a rural government office of the late 1930s and early 1940s looked like.

What to Look For at Toita Hall

The roof is hipped, and the entrance is on the gable end (tsumairi). A porch projects from the front, and a lean-to (geya) is attached at the back.

The walls are clad in overlapping horizontal boards known as yoroi shitami-itabari, a form of clapboard siding in which each board steps out over the one below like the plates of armour. Rows of tall rectangular windows pierce the walls, the pattern of an office that needed daylight at its desks.

The porch is what sets the exterior apart. The rest of Toita Hall is timber and boards, but the porch posts and walls alone are finished in mortar. One smooth, rendered block set into a wooden facade is easy to read from the street; look closely at the corners of the posts and the way the mortar surfaces are divided.

The 2007 renovation came a year before registration. Public sources do not describe exactly what was done, but the work kept the original frame and the defining features of the exterior, which is what made registration possible.

Visiting Toita Hall

Toita Hall stands in Futakuchi-machi, Kanazawa, about 1 kilometre west of the west exit of JR Kanazawa Station on the map, an easy walk. The building faces north onto the road toward Kanaiwa, so view the front from that side of the street.

No official information on public access to the interior, opening hours or fees could be found from the city or the building's managers. The exterior can be seen from the street. If you wish to enter the grounds or the building, follow any notices on site and the instructions of the managers.

Photographing the exterior from the street is straightforward, but keep an eye on traffic and pedestrians. The hall is used by local people and groups, so avoid getting in the way of anyone using it.